Calls for UN inquiry into North Korean 'prison camps'

Amnesty International has called for the UN to establish an inquiry into human rights violations in North Korea after satellite images uncovered evidence of an expansion of an area thought to be a prison camp, north of Pyongyang.

Amnesty researchers found that between 2006 and 2013 North Korea has constructed a new 20km perimeter around the Ch’oma-Bongvalley, located 70km north of Pyongyang. The new perimeter is said to include civilian villages and encloses inhabitants within it.

Amnesty analysts also identified the construction of new buildings that appear to house workers, which they say is likely to be associated with an expansion of mining activity in the region. Amnesty's Frank Jannuzi said the images are worse than expected:

We expected to find a new prison camp. What we found is in some ways even more worrisome.

The creation of a security perimeter with controlled access points and guard towers beyond what appears to be the formal boundaries of Camp 14 blurs the line between more than 100,000 people who suffer in North Korea’s Kwan-li-so system and the neighbouring civilian population.